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The Promise of the Ages 



CHARLES AUGUSTUS KEELER H-t^^^^ 



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Yet I doubt not thro' the ages one increasing purpose runs. 
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns. 

—Tennyson. 



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QOPYRIGHT, 1896 

; 

BY 

Charles Augustus Kekler 



To Joseph Le Conte 



Seeker, whose science overmasters the spirit s despair, — 
Teacher, whose truth mounts to heaven in worship and 

prayer, — 
Prophet, whose deeds are a witness of faith, free and 

strong, — 
Not to tender vain tribute to thee, do I pledge thee my 

song. 
But to gain, from thy life and thy love, benediction, dear 

friend, 
To hallow tny labor with graces thy presence can lend. 



INTRODUCTION. 

The law of evolution forms the keynote of this 
latter nineteenth century. It is the principle of trans- 
formation, of growth, of progress. It has profoundly 
modified our thought in all fields of observation and 
speculation, reconstructing the foundations of science, 
and challenging the dogmas of religion. In striking 
contrast to this modern conception of the origin of the 
forms of existence, is the more venerable doctrine of 
a divine creation, executed consciously by the volition 
of God in order that His love might find expression in 
tangible form. The clash of these two opinions, with 
their innumerable side issues, is termed the conflict 
of science and religion. If religion is to prevail in this 
conflict, it will be at the price of certain concessions 
popularly deemed of intrinsic importance, and espe- 
cially by the surrender of all which cannot be defended 
by reason, namely, the miraculous. 

Upon this basis, I have attempted, in the following 
pages, to present the struggles of an earnest mind with 
some of the modern life-problems; and, in the per- 



sonality of the Prophet, to exhibit these questions as 
they pass through the mind of the idealist. 

The poem recognizes the principle of evolution, 
but seeks to transcend this with the higher thought of 
the ultimate reality of the spirit. It is an attempt at 
a synthesis of the essential ideas of Darwin and Em- 
erson. The frank use of the subject-matter of science 
in poetry may be called in question, but a justification 
for this is found in the recognition of love as the 
animating principle beneath all the conflict and tumult 
of the ages. C A. K. 

Berkeley Cal. 

August, i8g6 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 



BOOK I. 

In meadows prank'd with sun-enamour'd flowers, 

'Mid cool wood wilds, fern-paved and leaf-embower'd, 

On mountain steeps, by ocean's storm-rent strand, 

Young Percival, unwearied, wandered on 

Through life's fair pageant, truth intoxicate, — 

Vain searcher — pleading at the van of time 

For some still voice from earth's mute lips of stone, 

Some sign amid the senseless trees that sway — 

Canst find no respite from inconstancy ? 

The very seasons glided 'neath his gaze 

Like ebb and flow of ocean's tireless tide, 

And fair day floated far on wings of gloom. 

The birds, o'erladen with their golden song, 

Swept like a gale of joy through spring's glad bow'rs. 

By faith impelled to love's blest miracle. 

Then busy bills upgather'd flexile sprays. 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

The willow's bloom or drifted thistle-down, — ■ 

And homes were shaped to hold the dappled eggs. 

Life's mystery revealed the callow young, 

By watchful care upreared, by love made strong; 

But, like the leaves that fall from autumn's boughs, 

They scatter' d from the groves and left them drear. 

" O Time, with thrifty fingers weaving all 

This mighty garb of earth," cried Percival, 

" Canst thou not show me truth's enduring form 

Lurking within this guise of changefulness?" 

But time swept on and rested not to tell, 

While doubt and gloom encompassed Percival. 

** O what is truth, where all is death or change, 

And what is love in life's inconstancy. 

And what is life but shadow doomed to fade: 

Truth, love, life, all a mockery and show!" 

Thus, bosomed in his own despairing dream, 

He saw life's shadow-splendor melt away 

To emptiness and death. O heart forlorn, 

Arise from bitterness and seek anew! 

Thou hast not delved in man's unfathomed heart 

For treasure earth denies thee ! Solitude 

Can never yield thy guerdon, vainly craved ! 

For, ever, ere hope's darkest hour is spent, 

Come peace and joy to lift the heart that pines; 

No spirit lives but some loved counterpart 

10 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

Awaits the day to greet its kindred soul. 

So Percival, when hope and trust had fled, 

Found, in a life that brooded o'er his own. 

The matchless rapture of a loving mind. 

A man of mighty destiny was he. 

Whom time had treasured to the uttermost. 

His fragile form the weary years had bent. 

While silverly his locks fell round his brow, 

And, in the fire of eyes deep sunk from age, 

A light gleamed forth that pierced the veil of tears. 

To Percival he seemed as one divine, 

So large his nature, so serene his mind, 

His thought, transfigured from the dross of earth, 

In heaven's more ample regions roving free. 

A prophet, Percival proclaimed his friend. 

And would not hear him called by other name. 

Large-hearted creature, he revealed himself, — 

A messenger with life's good word to bear 

To all, from that exhaustless mind of love. 

They wandered oft in fond companionship, 

'Mid silvan haunts where roved the shy wood-things, 

Through forest halls, by wild birds tenanted. 

That rang with notes so sweet and far away, 

It seemed the singing choir of heav'n was heard; 

And here in nature's temple worshiped they, 

The wind's soft organ tones low antheming, 

11 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

The brook's pure waters praying ceaselessly, 
And all the air attuned to peace and joy. 
One eve they lingered past the set of sun, 
The golden glow slow waning in the west. 
While silent stars, long pent in day's bright glare, 
Came stealing forth to watch the somber night, 
And deep'ning shadows spread across the plain. 
Then looked they starward through the boundless 

deep, 
Awed by the solemn miracle of night, 
When Percival gan ask the cause of all, — 
The genesis and growth of stars and worlds, 
The uncreated, shaped and bodied forth 
By law's resistless process, time ordained. 
Then answered him the Prophet, thought imbued, 
As one inspired by God's transcendent toil, 
Thus speaking in the earnest hush of night: 

"In the beginning was God, who was wholly a Spirit 
of love, — 

A Spirit of limitless love, with His measureless treas- 
ure to give, — 

With His infinite beauty of love, to be given sublimely 
away. 

And the Spirit of God was awake in the darkness that 
brooded afar, 

12 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

Awake in the night and the void, with the slumberless 
love at His heart; 

And out of His loving there streamed, through the 
night and the void supreme, 

A numberless throng of His children, to share with 
his infinite good. 

They thronged through the darkness in silence, un- 
knowing how fair they were formed. 

Unknowing the wealth and the wonder of beauty they 
bore through the night; 

God only aware of the wonder His will had achieved 
of His love. 

Aware of the beauty of man, that was shrouded in 
mist of the stars. 

Through man grew the glory of heaven, — the splen- 
dors of earth and of air. 

And the tumult and trouble of time, as it speeds on 
its weariless way; 

For man is the image of God — the wonderful work 
of His thought — 

And the world is the image of man — of his measure- 
less, mystical mind, 

Of his mind that is growing to freedom, through aeons 
of turbulent time, — 

From chaos upgrowing to knowledge, from envy 
expanding to love. 

13 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

From star-dust to Godhood still climbing, man meas- 
ures the fathomless spheres, — 

With love and with tears he is sounding their ultimate 
deeps, — 

And this is the way of his climbing, to look in the face 
of his God: 

When man first breathed of the breath which his 

bountiful Father had given, 
When first His thought went forth, to make him a 

world for a home. 
There was nothing but law in His v/orld that had 

triumphed o'er chaos and night. 
The alterless law of His being, unswerving through 

cycles of change; 
And out of His law and His thought grew the palpitant 

star-dust of heaven, 
The quivering star-dust, aglow with the fury of worlds 

in the making. 
White-hot was the strenuous beating of infinite labor- 
ing atoms, — 
The atoms that rolled into suns, with the rumble of 

turbulent thunder, — 
That throbbed in the nebulous suns that were rushing 

through darkness supreme. 
Each star took the station assigned it in heaven's 

unsearchable span, 

14 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

And sang as it swept in its orbit tiiat turned at the 
lodestar's control; 

For thus was ordained by the Father, that harmony 
ever should rule; 

And thus sang the spheres, in their motion, of har- 
mony perfect through time. 

From the vaporous stars' mighty girdles, the planets 

were scattered afar, 
Foredoomed to a path through the heavens enchained 

to the orb they had spurned. 
The sun, in a quivering phrenzy, shook Neptune away 

from her side, 
And shrank with a shuddering tremor away from her 

radiant child; 
Uranus was born in a tumult of furious fiery flame, 
And Saturn swept forth in his wonder, and Jupiter 

burst through the night, — 
The mightiest child of the sun from his luminous 

parent was rent; 
Then Mars, the presager of battles, and Earth, where 

the battles were fought, — 
Fair Earth, the kind mother who fostered the faltering 

spirit of man, — 
Fair Earth, blessed battle-ground, holy, where man 

struggled on to the light, — 

15 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

Where still he is toiling for freedom, for beauty, for 

truth, and for love. 
While Earth, with her volatile splendor, was robing 

the darkness in light, 
Fair Venus was born in the heavens, a witness of 

widening love; 
And Mercury, loath to relinquish the sun that had 

held him so long, 
The last of the planets created, was hurled into space 

without end. 

Thus, slowly and solemnly builded, while time urged 

its way through the void. 
The stars and the planets, evolving, reflected the 

beauty of mind, — 
Reflected the order and purpose that God on His 

sons had bestowed, — 
Unfolding the power of heaven, — upholding, fulfilling 

the law. 
Stars, stars, multitudinous stars, that tremble afar 

through the aether. 
That baffle the mind with their number, wide-reaching 

away through the gloom, — 
Swift speeding, with planets attendant, in orbits un- 
erringly true, 
All molded of mists of the heavens, in the fiery forge 

of the soul, — 

16 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

Not all of thy wonders and numbers can equal the 
scope of a soul ! 

O man, with the earth thou art weaving, and fashion- 
ing all of thy soul, 

How little thou dream'st that thy fabric is utterly 
wrought of the soul, — 

How little thou knowest thy greatness for evil or good 
to the whole ! 

Yea, verily, God has endowed thee with power of 
perfect control. 

And through thee the troubles of aeons in infinite 
majesty roll ! 

The Prophet ceased, and hushed was ev'ry sound. 
The earth outstretched beneath, the stars o'erhead, 
The night attuned to deep solemnity. 
Then walked they forth, no words escaping them, 
For God's mysterious presence seemed so near. 
As star by star trooped by in splendor dight, — 
Worlds limitless in night's eternal breast. 
The wind's low harp played tones seolean 
Across the grassy glades, and lips were heard 
By Percival that syllabled sweet strains — 
Wind voices singing low their vesper lay: 



17 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

Sibylline singing^ 
Rolling and ringing ^ 
Weary of winging 
Its fnusical way — 
Pauses appealing, 
Its meaning concealing^ 
Its rapture revealing 
In heaven's array. 

Starry forms dancing, 
Gliding and glancing 
Where mists are enhancing 
Their mystical glee, 
Pause in their pleasure. 
And leap toward the measure 
Of sibylline treasure. 
So wanton and free. 



18 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 



BOOK II. 

O moment big as destiny, tliat fills 

A lifelong brooding with its fruitfulness ! 

O thought, transcending time and change and dread, 

By hearts of love for aye interpreted ! 

In Percival's fond mind the Prophet's form. 

Illumined dimly by the stars' cold glow, 

Stood like a pillar of eternal stone 

To thrill his sight with ceaseless wonderment; 

And through the silence rang those earnest words 

In haunting tones of solemn mystery: — 

The stars — man's thought incarnate in the sky — 

The earth — man's home, in love and wonder wrought — 

And man — the Alpha and Omega, son 

Of God Himself, who rules and loves His child ! 

What themes unthought were here to peer upon; 

What weird brain fancies teemed in hill and sky, 

All unrevealed to man's insensate ken ! 

This creature, shaped by time's unceasing toil. 

To crown life's pageant with a fitting show, 

19 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

The Master made a god, time fashioning, — 

Building a universe of thought alone. 

The neophyte knew not the Prophet's mind, 

Veiled in its mystery of subtle lore. 

And doubt oppressed him with a fresh dismay 

When love, new-grown and strong, could scarce 

compel 
Compliance to a creed of fancy wrought. 
His young heart, panting with adorement meet, 
Rebelled as earth's firm floor beneath him swayed, 
And all tried things grew insecure and vain. 
The Master felt his skeptic mood and said, 
" Fear not the doubt that busies thee with pain, 
And robs my words of aught of worth or pow'r; 
'Tis half of truth, and faith supplies the rest, 
For Doubt and Faith, twin daughters of the soul, 
With hands uplifted hold the cup of truth, 
No guerdon granting to the parchM brain, 
Save when by each the suppliant stands approved. 
Thus is this dream of earth and heav'n made real. 
See at our feet this senseless form of stone. 
Dead nothingness of time-ensculptured clay, 
Wherewith the mind regenerates the past, 
Pent in its passive form, and reads therein 
A mighty fable of forgotten days — 
The conflict of the ages — earth the field 

20 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

And heaven the prize of battle, still unwon." 

** And wilt thou tell me. Prophet, all the lore 

Of storied legend writ upon the stone, 

And wilt thou read the scriptures treasured there?" 

So pleaded Percival, and thus replied 

His teacher, thought engrossed in earth's grand theme : 

" In deep-embosomed silentness the earth enfolds a 

tale. 
With misery and mystery enwoven page on page; 
With misery and victory triumphantly proclaimed, — 
Triumphant tribulation for the garnishment of time ! 
I gaze upon the story in the writing on the rocks. 
The story of the ages since the birth of Mother Earth, 
And O my heart is brimming with the beauty of the tale, 
And O my senses falter at its magnitude and might ! 

Old ocean, ever laboring upon the shores of time, 
With pitiless persistency engulfing rock and strand; 
Ye rivers, ever rushing from the mountains to the sea, 
With freight of sand to bear away, to build the ocean's 

floor; 
Ye pelting rains, that patter on the parapets of earth — 
I marvel at the story ye have stored beneath the deep, — 
The story of the cooling of the incandescent earth, — 
The conquering of fire by the elements of air ! 

21 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

O who can thread the labyrinth of far-receding time, 
And stand amid the wilderness on Earth's Archaean 

shore, 
Where darkest desolation dims the dawning with its 

gloom. 
And black the barren rocks are thrust above the 

seething sea, 
To cling amidst the sullen clouds that veil the sordid 

land? 

The sea was fiercely howling then on bleak tempes- 
tuous strand. 
And fierce the thund'ring fires smote and shook the 

shattered shore, 
But not an ear was there to hear, and not a heart to 

quail ! 
The rocks have locked the mystery of earth's re- 
motest time, 
Amid their silent fastnesses securely stored away; 
But O the prying hand of man, and O the prying 

brain ! 
With infinite preparings, in the darkness of the deep. 
Another age was dawning with the mystery of life. 
With the seeds of all eternity, the germs of all to be, 
Lying lifeless in the ocean with its latent life sublime, — 
Lying silent, with a patience God alone can under- 
stand, 

22 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

With His watching and His waiting for the crowning 

form of man. 
In the silent seas Silurian the frame of man was 

planned, 
While feeble groping creatures swarmed amid the 

troubled deep, 
And myriads of mollusks crowded all the crumbling 

shores. 
Crowded all the shores that shuddered in the silent 

lapse of time. 
And now the rocks are telling me their tale Devonian, 
Of mighty fish in armor clad, that throng' d the 

throbbing tide, 
All silent now in endless sleep of stony death sublime; 
For fate has swept the sounding sea with carnage near 

and far. 
And death was weeding all the waste in times 

Devonian. 
The forests of the age of coal, I see in splendor dight, 
With all their wild luxuriance of fern and tropic fen, 
Of waving plumes and tangled trees, that bend above 

the bog. 
And silent creatures growing into potency and might. 
Now dawns the day of reptile hosts, uncouth and 

strange of form, 
Uncanny things that swim and creep, and lift them- 
selves in air, — 

23 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

Huge ichthyosaurs and dragons scaled, misshapen, 

vast in bulk, 
Like monarchs of the nether world on destiny's fair 

shore. 

Time wears away its wonderment as ages slowly roll. 
The low succumb to higher types, the weary faint and 

die; 
The age has come for nobler forms, — the reptile slinks 

away; 
The peerless bird ascends the blue, the mammal 

treads the plain. 
He tramples o'er the fallen host, he conquers all the 

land. 
He rises in his majesty and proves the might of 

mind. 
The dreary age of ice may come to test the work of 

time, 
And whiten all the lovely land with deadly driving 

snow. 
But still the southward-sweeping horde, unconquer- 
ably strong. 
Is reaching ever higher with a craving unrepressed,— 
Growing eagerly to manhood with its victory of soul. 
With the limitless possessions that are placed within 

its reach. 

24 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

Triumphantly the task of time looks backward o'er 

its span, 
And sees the tender love of God, fruition find in 

man." 

His words upon the silent air took wing, 

The heedless wind their accents hurrying 

Afar where thought their echo scarce could tell, 

As, note by note, to nothingness they fell; 

But Percival with busy brain had caught 

Each syllable with earth's far pageant fraught, 

And cherished all its wonder. Age by age 

Had earth unrolled each mighty figured page, 

Like some old Sibyl's pond'rous book of fate, 

Where time had writ what death might consecrate. 

And this was truth, — this faith revealed in stone. 

In tablets graved ere Moses stood alone 

Before his God, to learn what high decree 

Should vest him with divine supremacy, — 

This faith the dead past bore to life again, — 

This growth, this striving, this enduring pain ! 

So Percival believed, and so he said; 

The Prophet, musing, shook his hoary head: 

" Thy mind too easily is set at rest; 

Too soon wouldst thou conclude thy endless quest. 

With tireless mind press on, nor rest content 

25 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

Till thou hast gained the soul's far firmament. 
With endless steps still tread the paths divine, 
Though doubt withhold the light of hope benign. 
With boundless yearning spurn the depths you 've 

trod, 
And climb the dizzy heights where waits your God !" 

The Prophet's eyes were lit with ardent light, 

His earnest face, so thin, was marble white, 

As one about to die, inspired to tell. 

With voice of God, life's deathless miracle; 

But Percival saw not the failing eye, 

Enkindled as it was by ecstasy, — 

Saw not the snowy brow, nor pallid cheek, 

So thrilled he was, so eager still to seek 

The truth that seemed to mock his vain desire, 

In shadow vestments floating ever higher. 

^' O tell me. Master, more of earth's domain, — 

Albeit my quest seems futile and in vain, — 

Of atoms shaped by law's resistless will 

In forms innumerous, that haunt and fill 

All space with wonder — by their chemic spell 

Upbuilding life's unfathom'd miracle." 

So spoke the thoughtless youth. The Master said 

In musing undertone, heart- wearied: 

26 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

" Reach upward, O world-soul, and span the domain 

of the stars; 
Gaze outward, and scan the unending contrivings of 

time ; 
Peer inward, and view the swift atoms astir at thy 

heart, — 
The atoms all working together to further thy aims. 
O world-soul, thy structure, so massive, is builded 

entire 
Of atoms that throng in a sun-mote, and throb in a 

beam; 
And the least thing is great in thy counting that 

reckons the stars. 
That numbers the sands of the sea-beach, the leaves 

of the grove, 
And the cells of the tissues, compacted with infinite 

care. 
What alchemy, passing all wonder, thy labor reveals, 
As the atoms, each spelled to its duty, pass forth in 

review, — 
Combining and changing and ranging through worlds 

and through time, — 
Incessantly throbbing, and threading the mazes of 

earth, — 
Unerringly trained to the task they are doomed to 

perform." 

27 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

His words grew faint and died in sighs away, 

And Percival beheld, with swift dismay. 

The deadly weariness that shook his frame. 

The youth's fair cheek was flushed with sudden shame 

To think what weight of woe his thoughtless pride 

Had caused to him his heart had deified. 

The Prophet gently soothed his mind, contrite. 

And laughed away his needless pang of fright; 

Then, parting, promised many another walk. 

And many an hour of sweet, regardful talk. 



28 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 



BOOK III. 

O doubt that cannot be suppressed, 
That twines its tendrils round the heart 
And dings and grows forever there ! 
O love that waxeth strong with time, 
That swells to fill the heart with bliss, 
Till clogged by doubt, the parasite! 
No note of time took Percival, 
So deep engrossed his mind and heart, 
While day slipped into night, and night, 
Unheeded, lapsed again to day. 
Oft-times he dreamed of sacrifice, — 
Of losing self in him he loved, — 
Of utter faith, unthinking, dead, — 
The Prophet's word alone his law; 
But, while he thought, a sense of shame 
Crept like a vapor from the grave, 
To shroud him in a sheet of scorn. 
"Abandon self? Nay, not to God 
Would I relinquish selfhood's claim!" 
His spirit thrilled to own its right, — 



29 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

To know itself a living soul. 
Thus doubting, Percival beheld 
The silent night that brooded round, 
And spake these words amid the dark: 

''^Universe of solitude^ where stars and atoms glide. 
Desolate seclusion in the tefnpest-tossing time, 
Ceaselessly evolving as the ages slowly ride 
Onward toward accomplishm,ent of purposes sublime, — 
Ceaselessly upleading the potential to the light, 
Tell nie what the secret is thy heart has hid away; 
Tell m,e what the spirit is that scans the hollow night, — 
Tell m,e all the wonderment of life's unending day^ 

There is naught more fair than the heaving sea, 
There is naught more strange than the boundless 

sky, 
Save the mind that encompasseth sea and sky, 
Save the love that enfoldeth the world in its spell. 
And Percival rose from his dream of the night. 
From his doubt and his pain, to a light, new grown, — 
To the light from within that illumines the whole. 

Full eagerly he sought the Prophet's side, 
And they together walked beside the sea, — 
There where the waters make perpetual moan. 

30 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

The mad waves swept upon the sandy shore, 

And, backward gliding, left strange tokens there, — 

Frail lace-work wrought in green and gold and red, 

Fit to adorn some mermaid's waving hair; 

And shells of lustrous pearl the waves had filched 

From caverns under sea, and creatures weird 

That dwell amid the ever-silent deeps. 

Here Percival addressed the sage, devout, 

To ask from whence man's spirit wandered here, — 

To learn what linked him to eternity. 

Then mightily the Prophet's voice uprose, 

(Mingling with ocean's massive undertone) 

As there he stood, bareheaded, by the sea, 

And answered thus the boy who worshiped him: 

"This thundering epic of time and of tears, 
With its terrible story, titanic and grim, 
How it moves us to wonder and spells us with awe. 
As we read it, and roam through its tumult and strife! 
How awful this tale of the past with its troubles 
Through conquering ages down-trampled by truth! 
O time and eternity, battling unceasingly. 
Never shall end this insatiate strife! 

Am I but a spark, in the drama of ages. 

That flashes from darkness and burns into naught, — 

31 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

A bubble that floats on the ocean eternal, 

And bursts on the crest of a white wave of time? 

Nay, nay, I remember, in aeons past counting. 

When lowly I groped in the gloom of the sea, 

In the glamourous gloom of the passionless deep, — 

A lowly Ascidian, feeble and powerless, 

Strong but in longing and yearning for light. 

Silently, haltingly, ploddingly seeking, 

I found the first treasure that heaven had sent, — 

I found it and clung to its beauty and majesty, — 

World without end it revealed to my sight ! 

The wonderful world of the sea and the silence 

Were mine, only mine, to desire, to own; 

I burst from my bondage with thoughts that aspired 

Still higher amid the wide waste of the deep. 

A fish I had grown, with the speed of the foam. 

And I lashed through the waters and leaped at the 

stars; 
I fled from the giants infesting the deep, 
And I grew, ever grew, as the ages swept past. 

I leaped at the stars, and I longed in my leaping 
To breathe the free air of the crystalline sky; 
Millenniums passed while I strove for my freedom, 
And crept to the shore, there to grovel and toil, — 

32 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

To crawl through the slime of the shores and the 

shallows, — 
A reptilian thing I was destined to be, 
Till the warmth and the passion, still latent within me, 
Broke forth in my blood and impelled me to climb, — 
To climb on the mountains, — to leap in the forest, — 
To fight and to fall and to mount on the slain, — 
To triumph exultant, with fangs deeply bedded 
In the flesh of a foe, where the blood spurted 

fast, — 
Relentlessly bedded, as, greedily gorging, 
I fed on the foe I had conquered and killed. 

All this I remember as backward I scan 
The mighty world-epic that fate has unrolled, — 
This epic of life I have lived in and longed in, 
Have fought in and loved in through infinite time: 
This past that has made me its slave and its master, 
As, faster receding in wave after wave, 
I stand and behold it, I clasp it, — infold it. 
When lo! it retreats to its limitless grave ! " 

The Prophet ended thus, while Percival 
Stood silent, filled with awe, and spoke no word; 
But from the waves came voices deep and low, 
Singing strange melodies in muffled tone, — 

33 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

Wild runes from singers on some foreign strand, 
The voice of prophecy from lips unseen: 

Man regeiierate, 
Love insatiate, 
Hope with joy elate ^ 
Groping and growing, — 
Thus our world shall be 
Climbing to liberty, 
Glad in its victory, 
Reaping and sowing. 

Not through faith alone, 
Light on our journey shone; 
Slowly our hope has grown. 
Baffled while groping; 
Sowing the seed we reap, 
Strong from the tears we weep; 
Love, that can never sleep. 
Still keeps us hoping. 



34 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 



BOOK IV. 

mighty man with th' wistful eye, 

Sad from th' untold troubles that made thee strong, 
Hewn of the rock adversity, to stand, 
A citadel where truth and love abide, 

1 dare not enter that celestial court, 

Thy heart, to peer upon its hallowed sanctity. 
No, rather let thy spirit, dove-like, brood 
About the spring-time, bringing peace and rest, 
Whilst thou, within thy fathomless abode. 
Dost gaze forth calmly on th' awak'ning year,— 
Gaze forth to see thy dearest hopes decline, — 
Thy love return' d by cold forgetfulness. 

The spring had come with glad, tumultuous song, 
And ev'ry bird's young heart was keen with love. 
The flowers came crowding through the sodden earth 
And looked upon the glory of the sun. 
Joy, joy and love were over all the land; 
But Percival no longer walked abroad 

35 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

With him who loved him day by day more dear, — 
No longer thirsted for immortal truth, — 
In moody solitude lone wandering. 
The Master, with pleach 'd arms and head downcast, 
His long cloak folded round his fragile form, 
Walk'd unattended 'mid the gladsome spring. 
One time they met in haunts endeared of old, — 
The youth, abashed, the Master, still the same. 
Greeting his friend in unreproachful tone. 

His gentleness o'ercame the boy's reserve. 
And presently they talked, as when of old 
They wandered gladly 'mid the wilderness. 
But Percival no longer asked of stars, 
Or atoms, or of life's unending toil, 
Seeking in lieu their Fashioner divine, — 
The God who worked these miracles of change. 
The Prophet sadly answer'd him in tones 
Of bitterness, like some deep song of death: 

**<9« His tnighty throne 
Sits the Great Unknown, 
Alone! alone! 
His throne is the worlds 
And His voice is hurled 
Where the stars have flown. 

36 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

The skies are ringing 

With mighty singing^ 

From the voice of the Great Unknown; 

And I hear His song 

In a world of wrongs 

And bless each somber tone 

Of the Great Unknown. 

His song is the heart's deep fnoan 

Of pity and love and longing. 

In tu7nult thronging 

From, the world of the flesh — His throrief^ 

There was a sadness in the Master's voice, 

A dread solemnity, that seemed to fall 

Like organ tones from some cathedral pile, 

Crumbling in hoar antiquity away; 

And Percival drew near the Prophet's side, 

And took his withered hand, and looked at him. 

Something the youth would say, but knew not how. 

Thus stood they, hand in hand, beneath the trees, 

The spring's blest benediction over them. 

Each for the other's unknown sorrow pain'd. 



37 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 



BOOK V. 

There came a day, of all fair days most fair, 

When birds, amid the budded boughs astir, 

Were building, for their nesthngs, downy homes, — 

When ev'ry flow'r was sought by toiling bee 

To bear its nectar to the hived cell; 

But some strange trouble haunted Percival, 

And spring's rare joyance only made him sad. 

At last, disburdening his heavy heart. 

The Prophet standing by to hear his pain, 

He burst forth, praying to the pow'rs of time: 

" O lift from my spirit this burden, this curse that I 

bear, 
Like a felon in fetters, atoning for ages of sin. 
The heir of eternity's sinning, I bend 'neath the load. 
And wait for the crushing contention to lighten my 

pain, — 
To drag me to darkness and chaos, — to scatter my 

breath 

38 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

Like a plague and a pillage to people, a curse among 

men. 
Heredity, awful usurper of time-growing souls, 
Unpitying power appalling, that hearest no prayer, — 
No prayer through the darkest desponding, no prayer 

from the heart, 
O tell me why I should be chastened for sins of my 

sire; 
Why, longing to grow, I am baffled, and sink to the 

earth, 
To fester, forsaken, forgotten, by life's turbid throng , 
While others surge upward, abetted by powers that 

guide 
Th' inscrutable fate of the universe, time without 

mind ! 
Though stars grow and worlds grow, evolving to 

greater completeness. 
Though life bears the tree of the ages to fruitage in 

man. 
Though laws grow, and knowledge trends steadily 

upward and onward, 
What counts this for me, thus accursed in the dark 

and defiled?" 

Ah! there was pity in the Master's eye. 
For Percival's drear plight and bitter plaint, 

39 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

And tender speech he made consoling him: 

" Nay, fate has not bequeathed so sad a load 

To mar thy life with fell incertitude; 

Thy father's curse may haunt thee like some ghost 

Forever near, — perturbed and sick from sin, — 

But thou art not thy father, nor the ghost 

Of some ancestral wrong. Be still thyself! 

Forever shape thy way as God ordained, 

And let no worldly fear encompass thee. 

Not in a day, but in eternity, 

The ghostly past is laid in some deep grave 

Where sin falls dead and molds in dust away!" 

** No, Master, not for self alone do I 

Repine," said Percival, with anxious breath. 

The other looked upon the ardent youth, 

So pallidly beseeching him in pain, 

And knew what mortal words could scarce convey. 

*' Then be of goodly cheer," the Master said, 

And, turning, breathed a prayer of thankfulness, — 

A prayer to Him who, deep in ev'ry heart 

Lives and awaits fulfillment, — life for love: 

**Lord, Thou hast toiled with this fair frame of mine 
Through generations endless as the stars; 
With ceaseless adaptation molding all 
To fitness and fulfillment, perfect planned. 

40 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

This eye, that glorifies my darkened soul 

With light and beauty trembling from afar, 

How hast Thou fashioned it with tireless toil! 

When all was dim at life's umbrageous dawn. 

Thy wisdom knew the wonder, unfulfilled, — 

Transcendent miracle, by growth achieved ! 

This ear, that tells the soul of tones divine, 

How didst Thou frame it when the world was young, - 

In silence shaping then a sea of song, 

Pent in the world's deep heart of mystery. 

Yea, all the beauty, all the might of soul. 

Has swum upon the flood of flowing time, 

Breasting the currents of adversity ! 

O Lord, Thou hast ordained the laws of time 

In all the wisdom of Thy perfect heart; 

And I, who float upon its heaving breast. 

With gratitude deep sunken in my soul, 

Look back and wonder at its loveliness, — 

Look back and see Thy godliness revealed 

In law and harmony that live for aye, — 

In love that cannot die, but deathless stands. 

Flooding the world with light — a Holy Ghost 

In ev'ry heart, that weaves all lives in one." 

Tears were in Percival's fond eye. 
And thankfulness upon his lip, 

41 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

And joy was in his heart of hearts, 
For that dread curse was Ufted now, 
By those sweet words of helpfulness, — 
Those words of faith and trust and love; 
And, as they homeward walked among 
The dreaming trees, the Prophet told 
Of love made manifest through endless toil, — 
Of beauty woven into truth and trust: 

A weaver is weaving away in seclusion, — 
Is weaving a robe for immortals to wear; 
I hear the low shuffle his shuttle is making, 
In m^easures euphonic, in rhythmical time, — 
The dulcet and canorous hum of his shuttle. 
That weaves with unwavering, weariless faith. 
The winds he is weaving — a warp for his fabric — 
The winds of the dripping salt caves by the sea, — 
The mellow ftieanderhig winds of the meadow, — 
The forest winds, soughing and sobbing at night: 
All these he is weaving, a warp for his fabric, — 
All these, with the singing of birds and of rnen, — 
The music of maidens, the laughing of children. 
And lowing of cattle, as eventing steals on. 
The clouds and the sea are the woof for his weaving,- 
The cumulus clouds as they climb through the sky, — 
The pennants of sunset, all golden and crimson, — 

42 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

The white waifs of summer that wander alone; 
The sea, with its motion of turbulent waters. 
Its crisp curling crests and its flurry of foam, — 
Its blue waste of beauty, tnajestic and endless, — 
Its boundless exuberance, battling for aye. 
Thus weaving, with weariless music, his fabric. 
The weaver unceasingly bends to his toil, — 
He fashions a fabric of sple7idor supernal. 
The gods to ador?t in their peerless domain, — 
A garm,ent of glory to grace the imm,ortals, — 
A mantle of love for the children of heaven. 



43 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 



BOOK VI. 

There is a love which cometh with the spring, 

Unlike the gentle love of friend for friend, 
A love which is not joy, nor anything 

But madness and desire that knows no end. 
It cometh like the bird on bounding wing 

Amid the slumb'ring winter of the soul. 
Its throat too full of melody, to sing 

The ardent rapture struggling for control. 
Thus Percival had felt love's sweetest pain, 

And known its fiercest pang of fell despair. 
Had lapsed into a dream where all was vain, 

Had wakened to a world where all was fair. 
Above him swept the boundless waste of blue. 

Beneath him stretched the velvet fields of green, 
Around him frailest flowers of spring-time grew, 

Beside him walked the maiden Merodine. 

Ah Merodine, dear Merodine, 
Large-eyed and tender hearted, 

44 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

At thy name the birds all sang, 
And swift the flowers started 
From their sleep to see thee pass, 
Merodine, dear Merodine ! 
What wonder, then, that Percival grew pale for love 

of thee ! 
What wonder that he gazed upon thy pure divinity 
And felt a love that passeth earth's supreme felicity! 

Percival and Merodine ! 

Two kindred creatures blent in one ideal. 

Two spirits yearning for the one divine ! 

Now Percival, his heart aglow with love, 

Taught his dear pupil from the Prophet's theme; 

And she, more apt than he had been of old. 

Drank, like a thirsting bird at life's cool spring, 

The mystery and prophecy of love. 

Upon a day of joy went Percival 

With her he loved, to greet his cherished friend, 

Who welcomed them full fondly, gazing long 

At Merodine with tenderness and trust. 

Her winning grace and earnest plaintive eye 

He could not view insensibly, and she. 

With adoration due, beheld the sage 

As one illumined with a light divine. 

It was a passing joy to Percival, 

45 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

Such interchange of grace and love to find — 

The fresh girl fancy tinged with vermeil glow 

That warmed the hoary Prophet's pensive heart — 

Until he felt steal o'er his life a pang 

That tempered reason strove in vain to quell; 

For Merodine was his, and he alone 

Should treasure her heart-bounty, and should store 

Each fond love-token from her trembling lip 

In some sequested haunt by fancy wrought. 

He shunned the Master now, and Merodine, 

Whene'er she spoke of him, received reply 

In words so cold they seemed reproving her. 

Thus passed the spring, and thus the summer sped, 

A wild love medley with the thrush sublime 

To chant the vespers 'mid the solitude; 

And autumn came and vanished like a dream, 

Leaving stark winter, desolate and cold; 

But, with the lapse of time, no word was said 

Of him whose presence daily made them strong. 

Only the gentle Merodine was sad 

At thought of his drear solitude and pain. 

For Percival was lost in love's abyss, 

And heard no tone save Merodine's sweet voice, 

And saw no shape save Merodine's dear form. 

She knew not why such joy should come to her, 

46 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

All undeserving, knew not why such bliss, 
Intense to painfulness, was hers alone; 
And sometimes, with her mild, enchanting eyes. 
Beholding him, she looked within his soul 
And trembled, overawed at such deep love, 
And shuddered at the thought of losing him. 



47 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 



BOOK VII. 

Happiness, — vain rapture of an hour, 

Frail bubble that the prick of pain may burst 

To nothingness, sweet strain that dies away 

With th' last trembling chord that strikes the ear, 

To live alone in memory's sad dream — 

Thy fleeting spell is shattered into dust 

As time's inexorable touch is laid 

On that dear mansion of the deathless soul! 

One morning, Merodine bespoke her love. 

Her fair face pallid from a night of pain. 

And said, with anxious look, and earnest tone: 

" I dreamed of Death last night; I saw him stand 

Beside a sea of sorrow. In his hand 

A pale child dangled, with its waving hair 

Tossed in the mournful, desecrating air 

That would not be appeased. A mother's cry 

Shuddered about his form unceasingly. 

Until the moldering skulls that paved the earth 

48 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

Shook, and looked up with grins of ghastly mirth; 

While th' cobweb centuries, about them grown, 

To nothingness were pitilessly blown. 

The great black Death stood iron-like and stark, 

His vacant eyes looked forth upon the dark, — 

When O, thank God, I wakened from my dream. 

And saw the pale moon through the window stream. 

" Again I slept, and dreamed of Death anew, — 

Of Death, the seraph fair, with eyes of blue, — 

Of Death, the fond restorer, young and bright, 

Leading the troubled soul to love and light, — 

Beside still waters treading meadows green, 

In that wide valley of the great unseen. 

So lovely did he seem, that loud I cried, 

O take me, Death, across that valley wide!" 

It was a portent of dread circumstance, 

This heavy-hearted dream that bade them stare 

Upon the blackness of eternity 

In wonder, and be dumb at death's stern call. 

But Percival scorned all uncanny things. 

And deigned not hearken to an idle dream, 

Till Merodine recalled the Prophet, lone, 

Unvisited, save by the wintry air 

That knew no pity for his aged head. 

Then Percival was touched with sudden fear; 

49 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

The old love surged across his life again — 

The dear companionship, the ardent trust, 

The cruel months of cold neglect and scorn, 

The cruel months of selfish blissfulness ! 

"O Merodine, dear Merodine!" he cried, 

"What strange enchantment thou didst breed in me, 

To seal my eyes on thy dear orbs alone. 

And with thy witchery to steal away 

So utterly my ev'ry thought and dream ! 

Straightway I'll find him now, and fresh declare 

The old faith stronger grown with lapse of time." 

And Merodine said, "Go, and tell thy love 

To him who pines for human fellowship." 

He went, her mild eyes following in fear, 

Her gentle love attending him afar. 



50 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 



BOOK VIII. 

Well mayst thou step lightly, Percival, 

And timidly, and fearfully, before 
The Prophet's door, that echoed to thy knock 

So loudly and so cheerfully of yore. 
And well thy heart may palpitate with dread, 

Thy heart that beat so bravely long ago. 
And well thy lips may question, " Is he dead?" 

And well thy mind may fear the truth to know ! 

He entered, and the Prophet lived, — O joy, 

To make atonement now for past neglect, 

To say all words of love in one long breath, — 

To prove his pity and to hide his shame ! 

But some sad change the Master's bearing showed, 

Some shock of time that left him doubly frail. 

He looked with vacant eye at Percival, 

Who trembled 'neath his strange unmeaning stare, 

And could not tell the love oppressing him. 

O dear old man, earth-weari'd, still enslaved 

51 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

In life's frail shell, the spirit loth to flee, 

Thou hast not toiled in vain ! In ampler spheres 

Thy soul shall seek fulfillment, earth-denied; 

In vaster hearts thy love shall throb and grow 

To infinite attainment, God-ordain'd! 

But Percival, o'erwrought with pain and dread, 

Sobb'd pitifully, " Master, canst not hear? 

Have thy dear eyes forgot their cunning, too?" 

The Prophet heard his speech and made return: 

" Well, boy, and hast thou come to take me hence, 

Down by the shore of the billowy sea 

Where the waters lift their arms of snow 

To beckon the wanderer on and on 

O'er the sandy waste that reaches afar? 

We have wandered oft together, boy, and oft 

Beside the sea we dreamed our wondrous dream; 

And now I cannot fear to go with thee 

Along that endless shore we looked upon. 

But first I have some words to say to thee, — 

Some words I fain would speak so mightily 

That all mankind their syllables would hear. 

And all their meaning treasure unto death: 

''^Man^s love is the hearV s love, — man' s work and his 

lore 
Is the spiriV s assertion of freedom and life; 

52 



/ 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

Man's hope is the hearVs hope, — man's faith and his 

trust 
Is the spiriV s belief in the beauty of truth; 
Man's truth is the soul'' s truth, — the soul's truth is 

whole truth, 
And the whole truth is God with His loving of Man. 

Man' s love is the Lord^s love, — man's work and his 

lore 
Is the Lord' s mighty planning , revealed in His sons; 
Man's hope is the Lord's hope, — man's faith and his trust 
Is the faith of the Lord in the beauty of truth; 
Man's truth is the Lord' s truth, that smites the heart's 

chords' truth, 
And the heart's chords are ringing with God's love 
for man." 

His eyes were burning with unnatural fire, 
His limbs were tense with unconsum'd desire, 
While Percival stood speechless and afraid. 
Longing to help, yet stagger'd and dismay'd. 
Then, on the impulse, swift as bird takes wing, 
Towards Merodine the youth was hurrying; 
And soon together speeded they in fear, 
Bent to the lone abode of him so dear, 
Who wandered deathwards in his lorn despair. 

53 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

But death is not so fell a thing to thee, 

O Prophet, for thy mighty heart can bear 

All sorrows to oblivion, and see 

Death shattered by the soul's immensity! 

When Merodine and Percival drew nigh 

Their best beloved friend, so soon to die, 

They could not weep, o'eraw'd by such sublime 

Communion on the verge of parting time; 

They could not speak, but only looked their pain — 

Their eyes grown eloquent where words were vain. 

At last the Prophet noticed them, and said, 

"Who art thou? some dear spirits of the dead. 

Sent to convey my weary soul afar. 

Sky-dwellers wander' d from thy lucent star?" 

"Nay, Master," Percival replied; "thy end 

Is not so near. Thy way shall trend 

Still on amid life's labyrinth of good. 

Thy soul denied death's somber sisterhood." 

New strength infused the Prophet's sinking frame, 

As thus uprose his last supreme proclaim: 

" There is no death, for the soul must measure the 

soul; 
And the world is a dream, and the wold that we deem 
The end of the soul, like the clouds that roll, 
Will melt from the light into mist of the night, 

54 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

And sing in its flight of the beautiful whole. 
There is no death, — and the grave, like the wave, 
Sweeps over our heads, till we sink in its bed, 
To rise with the dead, from our turbulent cave. 

" The world is a dream, and its white ghosts teem 
In the tottering brain; but we seek in vain 
For the host of the dead, who are fled! fled! fled! 
They have fled into life, they have burst from the 

strife 
Of the world of to-day, with its doubt and dismay, — 
And their fleet steps wend toward the limitless end, 
With its infinite gain they may never attain; 
But the rapture of striving and growing will blend 
With the longings that ever with love will contend, 
As they see through the tears of eternity, far, 
God's love, like the light of His passionate star." 

Thus ending, Merodine bent over him. 

And kissed his brow, and wept, while Percival 

Enclasped his hand — his heart too full for words. 

Then, with a passing sigh, the Master's soul 

Slipped from the dull entanglement of earth, 

In ampler spheres to labor up to God. 

Weep, earth children, weep for him who loved 

Both thee and all thy people far and wide; 

55 



THE PROMISE OF THE AGES. 

For he has gone from thee and left thee lone ! 

But O rejoice to know thy heritage 

Which time cannot efface, nor change can mar ! 

Here, in the awful presence of the dead, 

Rejoice in that great heritage of love. 

For, out of death, the soul, reborn, shall wing 

Its way in glory 'mid a fairer spring, 

And, out of doubt and pain, shall rise to be 

Love's emblem, bearing hope and immortality. 

Singing afar in God's grand hierarchy: 

Spirits of beauty, in glory attired, 
I call thee and claim thee, by heaven inspired! 
Together we Ul float through the azure sublime 
On pinions of love, where the turmoil of tim,e 
Is lost in the infinite glory of light. 
Transcending the lowly, uplifting the right; 
Together we HI sing with the spheres that are chanting 
A love that o' erreaches our passionate panting ; 
Together we HI triumph o'er trouble and pain, 
Recalled from earth's toil to an ampler domain; 
And Gcd shall await us, completing His plan 
When the conqu£ring angel has wrestled with 7nan. 



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